Uncorked

Rediscover merlot

The much-maligned grape is worth rediscoving

Good merlot has always been around; it just needs to be rediscovered. Find it and do both your palate and table a favor. (Bill Hogan/Chicago Tribune)

One of the great guffaws in the 2004 movie "Sideways" comes when Miles drops the F-bomb, shouting "No more … merlot!" If you're in the know about wine, though, an even better laugh comes toward the end of the film, when Miles is at the hamburger joint and slugs down a paper cup full of his beloved 1961 Chateau Cheval Blanc — a blended red Bordeaux that's nearly half merlot.

Miles didn't know. Like most Americans, he buys Bordeaux because it is at once delicious and prestigious, not because it contains certain grapes.

But no two ways about it, "Sideways" helped hammer coffin nails into merlot sales, in favor of the rhapsody the market began to sing over pinot noir. If the 1990s saw the ascendancy of merlot, the 2000s certainly witnessed both its demise and a newfound popularity for pinot noir.

Merlot did itself in, though, as hopped-up grape varieties oft do. Long before either Miles or the movie, it had replaced cabernet sauvignon as the go-to red for millions because it was easier to pronounce and to stomach. Winemakers planted more and more of it to slake what they assured themselves would be insatiable demand.

They planted merlot inappropriately, however. Too much of it was overcropped, and some of it in places where it didn't ripen well. It was this tsunami of thin and "green" merlot that, in truth, gave "Sideways" its teeth. (Prediction: Soon a new movie will slam pinot noir, for the same reason.)

Even so, as Miles inadvertently illustrated at the hamburger stand, many places grew good merlot and made outstanding wine of it. They just fell off the map when the "No more merlot" mantra took hold.

Good merlot has always been around; it just needs to be rediscovered. Find it and do both your palate and table a favor. Merlot is so appealing — plush, round, low in tannin, loaded with juicy tastes of black cherry, chocolate and ripe plums or, if from Bordeaux, even an acceptable turn on the flavors of fruitcake.

One region where merlot is way underpriced because it still suffers "Sideways" is Napa Valley. True, some well-made Napa merlot tops $50 a bottle, but that's still much, much less than its sibling Napa cabernet sauvignons from the same wineries (Shafer's is the best example).

Here are several recommended Napa merlots, in ascending price, as well as a coda of merlot from other regions well worth the money.

Don't miss the two at the end — they're Deal City.

Napa merlots to try

2010 Freemark Abbey Napa Valley: A big, fleshy and flashy merlot, with mouth-puckering tannins on the attack for fat; better at table than alone in the glass, but here's to that. $34

2001 Les Tannes en Occitane Vin Pays' d'Oc France: Underlying notes of spice and mineral are the kind you find in more expensive renditions from the same region; the super price makes the dark red fruit flavors even more fresh and lively. $12

If your wine store does not carry these wines, ask for one similar in style and price.

Bill St. John has been writing and teaching about wine for more than 40 years.